The present invention relates to a radiation-sensitive composition and pattern-formation method using the same.
In conventional pattern-formation methods, a coating film of a radiation-sensitive composition is exposed to a radiation of a given pattern and then the coating film is immersed in a liquid developer (mainly an organic solvent) or the liquid developer is sprayed over the surface of the coating film to form a pattern by wet development technique. However, this wet development technique has a defect that a negative-working composition used in a system employing a crosslinking reaction is swollen. This constitutes a serious obstacle to the formation of a fine pattern.
For overcoming this defect, there has been proposed a dry development technique wherein plasma is used for the development. If the dry development is effected until a region to be removed, i.e. an unexposed region, has completely been removed in the negative-working composition, the surface of an exposed region to be left is also etched to a considerable extent and the normalized film remaining (rate of thickness of remaining film to the initial film thickness) is reduced extremely. Thus, if this method is employed practically, many problems are posed.